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Teacher not organized! help

Hi I feel my 4th grader is not organized enough she sends homework in a ziplock bag pinned to the notebook The bag contains small spelling words 25 of them in individual papers very small ones which she wants the child to sort thru and write each night All homework is in loose pages in a ziplock bag !!she says i dont like folders!!She might send the homework guide home which my daughter leaves at school bcoz she didnt know that she had to bring home!!How do i solve this paper problem ?

You might want to ask her teacher. It could be that the spelling words are something your daughter cuts apart in class to sort or alphabetize. If having them on small papers is troubling, have her copy them onto a sheet to keep at home. The Baggie is a good idea. Kids let things fall out of folders- they won't fall out of a zipped Baggie. If your daughter is a 4th grader, she needs to be responsible for her papers and work. She should know what to bring home each night or know to ask her teacher. I don't really think this sounds like the teacher is disorganized. She might be expecting the students to be on top of their own work-that's responsibility.80796

I've taught for many years and I've taught all the grades and I'd say that children develop in different ways and have very different strengths and weaknesses from each other. I've met many 4th graders who could not stay on top of the many papers and work that school hands out to them. When I was a child, we did not have binders or a multitude of papers. We didn't have or need backpacks. Then it was possible to keep organized - our textbooks were in our desks and we were not allowed to take them home at night until we were in 'Junior High' school. We did almost all of our worksheets at school.

It's not uncommon at all for a 4th grader to struggle with organization. The baggie would drive me crazy too but I see this teacher's reason for using one. Maybe it does suggest that the teacher is disorganized or maybe it just suggests that the teacher has eccentric ways of being organized. In any case, there's most often no way to change a teacher.

If you have access to a xerox machine, put all the little words together and then xerox them.80814

My son - also in the 4th grade - has the most unorganized teacher. The weekly homework assignments is a thesis to read through. All parents I talked to have a hard time understanding what is required for each assignment. If the parents have a hard time understanding the assignment, how can we expect 4th graders to know how to do them?

So what I do each Monday night is to "decode" the weekly assignment. I email the teacher immediately for things that I don't understand. Once I got all my answers, I type it up in "simple language" for my son so he can easily read it for himself.

Organizational skills are very important skills to succeed in school. Children learn alot from parents. When the parents are organized, the children will acquire the skills. If the scrap spelling paper bother you and your child, have him/her type up the words on the computer and then refer to this list for the rest of the week. (On a side note: those tiny papers would drive me up the wall!)

My daughter was sent home spelling words in this manner and I assumed it was because they didn't have a spelling workbook or textbook. I agree its annoying and so easy to loose these small cut out words. My child had to keep track of them throughout the week. The teacher included colum heads that didn't make any sense to me. For example, CvCe indicating spelling rules for which the words were suppose to be sorted accordingly. It's not an efficient manner. I noticed private schools in our county had worksheets where the spelling words were listed. SO MUCH BETTER!80884

It is terrible that teachers are being judged by the homework they send home, when they frequently give up lunch and morning tea breaks to ensure children's lessons are in order. Teachers spend a huge amount of their time planning, preparing and assessing multiple curriculum subjects not just spelling! The time and energy spent organising and delivering differentiated spelling programmes is substantial. I would suggest rather than complain maybe offer some of your time to be a classroom assistant and organise spelling word cards. I am sure the teacher would be most grateful. 82573

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